China’s internet censors wrote themselves a ridiculous theme song, and we subtitled the video

By day, the Cyberspace Administration of China is one of the government authorities responsible for policing the web, removing objectionable content like pornography and references to certain historical events. But the Administration also apparently has a choral group, and at a Spring Festival gala earlier this week, that group unleashed a new song on the world.

The song, titled “Cyberspace Spirit,” was reportedly written for the event. But the video has since spread online, and the Wall Street Journal‘s China Real Time blog has translated the lyrics into English. With a few tweaks of our own for clarity, we’ve added those subtitles to the video of the song’s performance, so you can see it in its full glory:

Unfortunately for Chinese authorities, the song doesn’t seem to be quite the chart-topping propaganda hit they had hoped for. Comments online have criticized it for being over-the-top and very old-fashioned. And as many have pointed out, the chorus contains an unfortunate (and presumably unintentional) pun: the Mandarin phrase for “internet superpower” that’s repeated four times during the refrain sounds just like another phrase that would be written differently but pronounced the same way: “country of internet walls.”

Whoops.

(Source: Wall Street Journal)